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Lawmakers pledge new look at Colorado child protection system

Reforming Colorado's child protection system will be a top concern during the upcoming legislative session, key lawmakers said Monday, while pledging a renewed look at issues of transparency, state oversight and workloads.

State Senate President-Elect John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, said the legislature will review whether state officials have enough authority to properly regulate counties, which are in charge of delivering child welfare services.

"We try to support local control whenever we can, but when it fails in protecting the most vulnerable amongst us, we have no choice but to look at how to make this better," Morse said.

Colorado is one of nine states that have county-run child welfare systems. Morse noted that controversy erupted when a panel appointed by former Gov. Bill Ritter recommended a regionalized system, where rural counties could combine resources and expertise, but he said that suggestion is back on the table after an investigation by The Denver Post and 9News that revealed widespread flaws in keeping kids safe.

"There is no question that protection is one of the fundamental tenets of our government," Morse added. "When you talk about children and very young children, then that is what protection is all about. Our protection has been nowhere near what it should be."

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The Post found that since 2007, 175 children in Colorado have died of abuse and neglect. Of those, 72 had families or caregivers who were known to human services.

The investigation also found the state lacks the ability to track caseworkers' workloads or even how many caseworkers work in Colorado. State officials also do not know discipline histories of caseworkers, delegating that role to county officials.

In more than half of child abuse deaths in the past six years, caseworkers did not follow state policy regarding how to investigate neglect and abuse allegations, according to The Post's review of child fatality reports.

Caseloads an issue

State Rep. Kevin Priola, a Republican from Henderson, who is the incoming minority whip in the House, said that even before The Post published its findings, he had heard rumblings that key legislators would push legislation regarding the state's child protective system.

He said the caseloads of child protection workers has been an issue for several years now.

Rep. Jonathan Singer, D-Longmont, who was a child protection caseworker in Boulder County until he was appointed to the legislature about a year ago, said he wants to help decrease the burden on caseworkers.

"One of the things that I want our state to look at is that caseworkers have adequate tools to do the jobs they are expected to do," he said. "Thirty or 40 families for a caseload? I don't think most folks are going to stay in a position where they get paid $30,000 to $40,000 per year and stay available for families who are in crisis constantly."

Colorado needs to "turn back the tide that in some ways seems insurmountable," he said. "There are human limits to what our caseworkers can do."

Singer said he was not certain whether the state needs to spend money on a caseload study, as has been recommended by expert panels over the years. Colorado is one of 11 states that do not report case-loads to the federal government.

Singer, who expects to serve next session on the House committee that oversees child welfare, said he also wants lawmakers and county leaders to discuss regionalizing the system and creating a statewide child abuse hotline to screen calls.

Lawmakers often get pushback from counties on matters of local control. Singer said he wants county leaders to participate in the reform discussion but that he would not cave to pressure regarding local control.

"If it's a conflict between county agencies and doing what's best for kids, my decision is already made," said Singer, whose job was to assess children's safety and screen abuse allegations.

Bold moves needed

State Sen. Linda Newell, D-Littleton, who helped draft the 2010 legislation that created Colorado's child-protection ombudsman's office, said it will take more than just discussions among lawmakers to create needed change in the child welfare system.

"It's obvious now that we need to move more boldly," she said. "We've been hitting some of the minor points in our work, but now comes the next big shift."

Newell said some conversations should focus on whether there are appropriate "checks and balances" in the state's relationship with the counties. Shifting focus to "the love of children" rather than a turf war over control is crucial, Newell said.

"There are 64 counties doing it 64 different ways," Newell said. "Some are doing really well, and some have best practices that work really well. Other counties are not doing as well, and sometimes it's for varying reasons."

Newell said she would like to re-examine the possibility of introducing a statewide hotline to take reports of abuse or neglect. The hotline could streamline handling of allegations of abuse or neglect and make it easier for the public to report concerns.

State Rep. Beth McCann, D-Denver, also said a centralized hotline could provide the public with more confidence that their reports are being looked at.

More state involvement at the county level could also improve transparency in the child welfare system, she said.

In addition to more transparency and better coordination, McCann wants to discuss ways to provide more resources and more consistent training to caseworkers throughout the state. But McCann said she was not certain that a study to determine the size of child protection workers' caseloads would be as useful as looking for additional sources of revenue to help support caseworkers.

Pressure to act

Rep. Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver and incoming speaker of the House, said he would push representatives on the House committee that oversees child welfare "to spend their time looking into the child welfare system and to see how we can improve it."

Child advocates made clear they will keep up pressure on lawmakers to act.

In a strongly worded call to action to lawmakers and other public officials distributed Monday via e-mail, Stephanie Villafuerte, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Children's Law Center, vowed to push for reform.

Villafuerte specifically criticized Colorado laws that require reviews of casework "in a small group of narrowly defined child abuse deaths and near fatality situations." The law has so many exceptions, she wrote, that it is "virtually meaningless."

Eric Brown, spokesman for Gov. John Hickenlooper, said Colorado Department of Human Services Executive Director Reggie Bicha and his team "are on the right track with reforms, transparency and accountability initiated earlier this year as part of the governor's child welfare plan. Yet even with these wide-ranging changes, we continue to look for new ideas and ways to improve outcomes."

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